Agricultural Education Lecturers’ Perspectives on Digital Agricultural Education and Youth Engagement for Sustainable Agripreneurship Development among Undergraduates in Lagos State Tertiary Institutions

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between digital Agricultural Education, youth engagement and sustainable agripreneurship development among undergraduates in selected tertiary institutions in Lagos State, based on the perspectives of Agricultural Education lecturers. A correlational survey research design was adopted. The target population comprised undergraduates enrolled in Agricultural Education programmes in the selected institutions, while the respondent population consisted of 35 Agricultural Education lecturers, comprising 27 lecturers from the Lagos State University of Education and 8 lecturers from the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka. Since the respondent population was small and manageable, complete enumeration was adopted, and all 35 lecturers participated in the study. The lecturers were selected as respondents because they were directly involved in curriculum implementation, practical instruction, supervision of students' projects, integration of digital tools into teaching and learning, and assessment of students' competencies and engagement. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that was subjected to face and content validation by experts in Agricultural Education, Entrepreneurship Education, and Educational Measurement and Evaluation. Internal consistency reliability of the multi-item scales was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which yielded an overall coefficient of 0.89. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and multiple linear regression. The results showed a statistically significant positive relationship between digital Agricultural Education and sustainable agripreneurship development (r = .672, p < .001), as well as between youth engagement and sustainable agripreneurship development (r = .718, p < .001). Multiple regression analysis showed that the four dimensions of digital Agricultural Education jointly explained a substantial proportion of the variance in sustainable agripreneurship development, with an adjusted R² of .574. The overall regression model was statistically significant, F (4, 30) = 16.18, p < .001. Among the four dimensions, digital agribusiness and marketing education had the largest standardized regression coefficient (β = .341), followed by virtual/practical digital learning (β = .284), digital agricultural information access (β = .236), and AI/emerging agricultural technologies (β = .205). The study recommends the integration of practical training in e-commerce and digital marketing into Agricultural Education curricula, greater emphasis on hands-on application of digital learning through farm projects, and improvement of institutional digital infrastructure.